Study Rationale:
Brain inflammation contributes to progression of Parkison’s Disease (PD), and drugs targeting inflammation are being developed as disease modifying treatments for PD. However, noninvasive tools to evaluate the disease modifying effect sorely lacking.
Hypothesis:
Inflammation related to PD creates a neurologic microenvironment that is full of oxidants. We invented a new MRI probe called Fe-PyC3A that switches from an MRI silent to an MRI visible state in the presence of oxidants. We hypothesize that that MRI using Fe-PyC3A is a powerful biomarker to detect, quantify, and surveil brain inflammation in PD.
Study Design:
We will confirm that Fe-PyC3A can detect brain inflammation in PD, and comprehensively evaluate how our imaging reflects the entire constellation of cell and molecular level changes that accompany inflammation in PD. Lastly, we will evaluate MRI using Fe-PyC3A as a tool to rapidly detect the disease modifying effects of an anti-inflammatory treatment currently being evaluated in PD clinical trials.
Impact on Diagnosis/Treatment of Parkinson’s disease:
The technology we are proposing can will facilitate PD drug trials by providing a noninvasive and early readout to visualize disease modifying effects of new therapies. Ultimately, this technology will help to accelerate the development of PD treatments by providing a noninvasive marker to surveil disease progression and therapeutic response.
Next Steps for Development:
Preliminary data indicates this technology is effective in several organ systems and well tolerated up to high doses in mice. We know how to make kg quantities of the molecule PyC3A. We will leverage the positive results of this project to raise the funding required to support the toxicology and safety pharmacology experiments that are required to file an investigative new drug (IND) application with the FDA.